An insider’s guide to the invisible new economy that is reshaping our lives
Welcome to the economy of algorithms. It’s here and it’s growing.
In the past few years, we have been flooded with examples of impressive technology. Algorithms have been around for hundreds of years, but they have only recently begun to ‘escape’ our understanding. We are so impressed by what they can do that we give them a lot of agency. But because they are so hard to comprehend, this leads to all kinds of unintended consequences.
In the twentieth century, we had the economy of corporations. In the first two decades of the twenty-first century, we saw the emergence of the economy of people, otherwise known as the digital economy, enabled by the internet. Now we’re seeing a new economy take shape: the economy of algorithms.
How can we use algorithms to automate the boring parts of our jobs, enhance decision-making and drive innovation?
Where is the line between algorithmic ‘help’ and surveillance?
Can an algorithm take your job?
How do you advertise to a fridge?
Do algorithms dream of electric sheep?
Why is it so hard to predict where technology will go next?
These questions and more are answered by this exciting and ground-breaking book, which includes nine rules for flourishing in the new economy of algorithms.
Tobias Lange
Senior Vice President, Siemens Digital Industries Software
A damn-well written book… Marek provides a very thrilling, entertaining whirlwind tour of the different AI algorithms and examples of their industry applications, including the implications they have on everyone’s everyday life and the overall workforce. This is the book I will, from now on, recommend to anyone who wants to understand the implications that a new generation of AI-powered algorithms will have on the human society, and how to best work together with them – from my children, to laypeople, to the data scientists in the field of manufacturing intelligence.
Mario Herger
Technology trend researcher and author of Gamification at Work
Professor Kowalkiewicz’s book is an eye opener about how ubiquitous digital helpers and algorithms have become in our daily lives. This book is right on time for us to understand more of the good, the bad and the ugly of algorithms.
Dr Jonathan Reichental
Founder and CEO of Human Future and author of Smart Cities for Dummies
Professor Kowalkiewicz has written a fantastic and timely book on the opportunities and risks of algorithms in our lives. In simple and often humorous ways, he connects the dots on a topic that is deserving of much greater attention. Software-based automation is playing a greater role today than many of us realise, and its ability to both positively augment and negatively disrupt our lives is starkly laid out. The book is full of great examples and stories that remove much of the complexity and make the reading fun and insightful from start to finish. It concludes with a series of much needed recommendations that, despite all the challenges he identifies throughout the book, provides guidance on how we can all learn to live and prosper with our digital minions.
Simon Dale
Vice-President, Adobe
Professor Kowalkiewicz has written a very accessible book for anyone interested in the long-term opportunities for businesses, individuals and society as technology penetrates ever more corners of the economy and our lives. His global examples of the application of software to solve novel problems are enlightening, informative and encouraging.
Prof. Toby Walsh
Chief Scientist at the UNSW AI Institute and author of Machines Behaving Badly
AI appears to be eating the world. How then to understand where this is taking us, both the promises and the threats? This book is for you. A down to earth tour that will help you understand how the algorithms are increasingly taking on human roles.
Chong Wang
AI Research scientist, Apple Inc.
AI and algorithms are reshaping our world at an unprecedented pace, with buzzwords like neural networks, deep learning and transformers dominating the headlines. But what significance do these terms hold for you? Professor Kowalkiewicz’s eagerly awaited book provides clear and accessible answers to this question.
Rohit Bhargava
#1 WSJ Bestselling Author of Non-Obvious Megatrends
Through an entertaining collection of stories and lessons, Kowalkiewicz deftly charts the so-called ‘march of the algorithms’ and how they have come to dominate so much of our world and decision making. Whether you’re trying to minimise the impact of algorithms or leverage their opportunity, this is an optimistic guide to tilting our modern economy of algorithms toward opportunity instead of disaster.
